Published in the Independence Daily Reporter, February 22, 2017

Most of us have heard it before. “What’s the number one reason for being in business?” If you’ve been in any business class for the last 100 years and even many entrepreneurship classes today, the expected answer is to “To make a profit.” That should not be the number one reason to be in business. When I say this, I am often misunderstood. Profit is essential. Business can’t survive without it. Even “not-for-profit” organizations have to have a certain amount of profit to remain in existence. Non-profit is a status for income tax purposes.

The unhealthy over-emphasis on profit likely began in the late 19^th century with the industrial barons of the day desiring profit without regard for the welfare of the people doing the work. Also of little regard were any thoughts of good stewardship regarding the natural resources required for the output of the industrial revolution. Sometime around the advent of the 20^th century, business schools were created to produce the managers of industrial companies and those managers were taught that profit is the number one motive. One unexpected (maybe not unexpected, but disregarded) consequence of this emphasis was the development of the labor unions in an attempt to negotiate respect from the corporations. Many of our natural resources have suffered from depletion and/or pollution. Profit as the number one motive above all else opens a door for greed and corruption.

Through all of this, there was little regard for the needs of the consumer. They were expected to purchase the output of business and be happy with whatever they got regardless of quality or lack thereof. Remember the term “planned obsolescence” we used to use about American-made cars? Remember the time in the 1980’s when the American car companies were nearly crushed to death by Japanese car companies? The Japanese cars would last for two to three hundred thousand miles instead of the eighty thousand miles that had been built in to the American models.

Today, many of us are moving into a new world of business. In this world, the number one goal is to provide products and services so good that customers are happy to pay enough for them to provide a healthy profit. This is the message we should be conveying to entrepreneurs and business majors today. In our global entrepreneurial economy, someone, somewhere, is going to be striving to provide higher quality. In our Entrepreneurial Mindset class, we strive to create the entrepreneurial thinking processes that emphasize service and innovation to provide the best solutions for customers. Once that thought process is in place, figuring out how much to charge to make a profit is easy. People don’t mind the price if the solution is exceptional.

This concept of exceptional service as the primary motive can also be applied to traditionally not-for-profit entities like local, state and national governments. People would not object to paying their taxes so much if they felt like they were getting exceptional services. What would it be like to go into a city hall, courthouse or other government office and be treated like a valued customer?

All of us could benefit from an entrepreneurial mindset that emphasizes great service as the primary motive. Our customers and constituents would be much happier, whether paying at the cash register or paying their taxes.

Jim Correll is the director at Fab Lab ICC at Independence Community College. He can be reached at (620) 252-5349 or by email at jcorrell@indycc.edu.

Published in the Independence Daily Reporter, February 15, 2017

Sign, sign, everywhere a sign; so go the lyrics to the 1971 song called “Sign” by a group called “5 Man Electric Band.” Indeed, there are signs all around us. Some like the road and street signs that convey information to help us get from point A to point B without crashing into each other are generic and consistent, a good thing given their purpose. Early in the days of automobile travel, road-builders saw a value in this consistency. The purpose of other signs is to convey information about businesses, products and services. Today, elaborate digital signs are available so messages can be changed every few seconds.

Most signs in businesses and organizations should be used to welcome customers or patrons to use their products and services. The messages conveyed by our signs go far beyond the words and images. Many times, the subtle—or not so subtle—message beyond the message is counteracting the intent of the sign.

Look around. Many signs you see are worn out, dirty or faded. Often, there are too many “No’s.” No Public Restrooms, No Substitutions, No Shoplifting-You Will Be Prosecuted and We Are Watching You, No [insert your text here] Allowed. Finally, many of our signs try to say too much.

People want to buy from or otherwise patronize businesses and organizations that are clean, welcoming and up to date. Signs that are worn out, dirty or faded make the opposite impression.

The “No” signs usually are a result of a small percentage; let’s say 10%, of customers doing something that makes us mad. We want to make sure the offending practice doesn’t happen again, so we put up a “No” sign.  The problem is that the 90% of us that would never do the offending practices are a little (sometimes a lot) put off by all the negativity. Sometimes, we’re put off enough that we don’t come back. Many “No” signs can be reworded to eliminate the word “No.” “Restrooms Are For Our Customers.”

Many signs are too wordy. Most people will only spend 3 – 5 seconds reading a sign, while driving; it’s more like three seconds. Words and images and even the fonts should be chosen very carefully to be very brief and concise.

It’s a good idea periodically for us all to take a look at our signage and try to do so with the objectivity of a stranger. There are many tools at Fab Lab ICC available to help with the physical upgrading of many types of signs. We have people in our network of entrepreneurs and small business owners that are very good at wording and layout to help make sure you are conveying the messages you intend.

Jim Correll is the director at Fab Lab ICC at Independence Community College. He can be reached at (620) 252-5349 or by email at jcorrell@indycc.edu.

Published in the Independence Daily Reporter, February 8, 2017

In David and Tom Kelley’s book “Creative Confidence” they talk about the “creativity myth,” the idea that equates “creative” with “artistic.” I run into the myth when I talk about building creative confidence in our Fab Lab ICC students and members as they learn to make new things, many times while solving a problem for themselves or others. Someone once said “Most of us will never be able to paint a picture.” That’s not the kind of creativity we’re talking about here. As the Kelley brothers say in the book “creative confidence is about believing in your ability to create change in the world around you.” In our schools, we should be putting as much energy into building creative confidence in our students as we are putting into the basics; communication, math, science and the arts.

This is not a critique of any school system nor is it a critique of the many great and dedicated teachers and administrators. They are all working within an educational system that was created in the early 20^th century in collaboration between industry and the Ivy League schools.  The whole system was designed to support industry and provide workers to maximize production.  There was provision for some of the educated to excel, but for the rank and file production workers, the goal of K – 12 education was to make them literate enough to work in the factories for a decent wage and be happy with repetitive work. Meanwhile, the concept of specialization developed in higher education. Pick a discipline in which you’d like to work the rest of your life; one thing. Don’t worry about diversifying your education; you’ll be able to easily get plumbers, electricians and general contractors to come to your house when you need them. No need to learn any of that practical stuff. Coming not long after the destruction of the Civil War, and later the economic boom after the Great Depression and World War II, the system worked pretty well for several decades. In the 1980’s, things began to change with the advent of the Internet and the fall of the Soviet Union.

The education system began to show signs of ineffectiveness. Other people around the world were, and still are, willing to do repetitive work for much less money and the clamor to move production overseas has been taking place for years. The rank and file students coming through our school system today don’t want to do repetitive work and they do not feel like they have the power to “change the world around them.” Education thought leader Sir Ken Robinson explores this idea in his riveting 2006 TED Talk asking “Do Schools Kill Creativity?” At about 12 million views, it remains one of the most watch TED Talks ever. (Search for it on YouTube.)

On the specialization side of education where we were encouraged to pick one thing, we see today that nearly 50% of those graduating from college can’t get a job in that “one thing.” The problem with the “one thing” theory is that today’s “one thing” discipline will be obsolete tomorrow. We really are not very good at predicting what tomorrow’s new, hot “one thing” will be.

The situation of our educational system is complex and can’t be painted with a broad brush. However, people are not going to be willing to come back to school every couple of years, paying a bunch of money to learn the next “one thing” that will be obsolete in an ever-shortening time frame. A huge part of the answer has to be showing our students how to learn on their own so they can successfully respond to the changes and disruption they will continue to see in their world. Experiential education through project based learning in Fab Labs and maker spaces in all schools will need to become a substantial part of the solution.

Jim Correll is the director at Fab Lab ICC at Independence Community College. He can be reached at (620) 252-5349 or by email at jcorrell@indycc.edu.

Published in the Independence Daily Reporter, February 1, 2017

Early on, in one of our first Fab Lab Boot Camps for middle-school age kids, one of them said something very telling.  We were telling them about the projects they’d be working on and one said “What if we fail?”  We stopped everything and hastily put together a lesson about failure and what a good teacher it can be, if you go to the school.

We asked the kids what they had heard or learned about failure at school.  There was a long silence until one of the boys said “That I can’t kick a soccer ball very well.”  I then asked if that means he should give up because he’ll never be able to kick a soccer ball.  The conversation then centered around the idea that if he practiced, he could get better at kicking.  We then showed them a video about famous failures of all time and how those people learned from their failures to move forward to do great things.

Now, we always dedicate a portion of the time we spend with young students to talk about failure and how it should be celebrated and not feared.  When we fail at something, actually when something has an unexpected outcome, we learn from it to determine what we need to change in order to get the desired outcome.  Once that lesson is learned, it stays with us for a long time; much longer than if we read about how to get the desired outcome from a book or even YouTube video.

In a world where we can easily get rote answers by asking Google or Amazon Echo, we need to teach our youth to concentrate much more on experiential learning by doing, and failing, than by merely memorizing a bunch of dates, facts and formulas.  We need to celebrate the journey, the hard work and the learning, more than the final result.  Having high test scores, whether on standardized tests or on the SAT, has little correlation with how someone is actually prepared to face real world challenges.  These test scores also sort the students into the “academic” ones and the “non-academic” ones.  In our Fab Lab ICC experience, we find that many people, of all ages, that have been branded as “non-academic” are really some of the smartest and most talented problem solvers we see.

We’re starting to see more and more schools moving toward project based learning, concentrating on learning by doing and learning from failure.  The change can’t come soon enough.  Turning students loose to do projects of great interest to them, whether individual or team sets them up for all kinds of great learning, even from the failures along the way to completion.  People will learn whatever they need to learn to solve the problems at hand in accomplishing something of great interest to them.

Jim Correll is the director at Fab Lab ICC at Independence Community College. He can be reached at (620) 252-5349 or by email at jcorrell@indycc.edu.